Bartolome de las Casas conference to be held in Letran

The Dominican Province of the Philippines, Inc. (DPPI) will hold this year’s Bartolome de las Casas Conference at Colegio de San Juan de Letran on April 1, focusing on its advocacy for life.

Abp. Socrates Villegas, D.D., the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP); and Rev. Fr. Mike Deeb, the Dominican Order’s permanent delegate to the United Nations and its General Promoter of Justice and Peace, will be the keynote speakers of the conference.

Villegas was assigned to the archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan in 2009 and was elected as the president of CBCP in 2013. Two years later, he received the habit of St. Dominic during a celebration led by Rev. Fr. Gerard Timoner, prior provincial of the Order of Preachers, in 2015, making him a member of the Dominican Clerical Fraternity of the Philippines. Villegas is not new to the Dominican family, having spent his high school years in Letran.

Deeb, on the other hand, was appointed by Fr. Bruno Cadore, the Master of the Order to the UN last 2014. He has been involved in the mission for Justice and Peace for many years, doing work in Africa and South Africa.

Rev. Fr. Victor Calvo, OP, the Promoter of Justice and Peace of the DPPI and the main organizer of the conference, said that the event is in unity with the recent stand that CBCP released in a pastoral letter last month regarding the extra-judicial killings and the reimposition of death penalty.

“We are promoting the culture of life, and not the culture of death,” he said.

In the statement made by CBCP, Villegas spoke of the concern of the Church on all the deaths and the indifference of people towards the issue. He reminds Filipinos:
“The life of every person comes from God,” he said. “Not even the government has a right to kill life because it is only God’s steward and not the owner of life.”

The whole-day conference will begin at 8AM at the Blessed Antonio Varona, OP Gymnasium.

For more details, please contact the Bahay Dominiko at 09205736317 or 7437762 to 63 and look for Ms. Menchie.